March 3:

1875 – Georges Bizet‘s opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Births:

1869 – Henry Wood, English conductor

1891 – Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer

1913 – Margaret Bonds, American pianist and composer (not classical)

1944 – Lee Holdridge, Haitian-American composer and conductor

Deaths:

1706 – Johann Pachelbel, German organist and composer (something about a canon)

1768 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer

1932 – Eugen d’Albert, Scottish-German pianist and composer

1988 – Henryk Szeryng, Polish-Mexican violinist

2000 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and conductor

2003 – Goffredo Petrassi, Italian composer and conductor

A couple of important people in the list for this day. d’Albert has a sonata that’s been on and off in my rotation for a while. He apparently also had a long list of ex-wives (I think that was him).

March 4:

No events. Births:

1492 – Francesco de Layolle, Italian organist and composer

1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (famous much?)

1838 – Paul Lacôme, French composer

1877 – Alexander Goedicke, Russian pianist and composer

1886 – Paul Bazelaire, French cellist and composer

1915 – Carlos Surinach, Spanish-Catalan composer and conductor

1921 – Halim El-Dabh, Egyptian-American composer (electronic music from an old Egyptian? maybe worth checking into)

1921 – Kaljo Raid, Estonian composer, cellist and clergyman

1925 – Paul Mauriat, French conductor

1928 – Samuel Adler, German-American composer and conductor

1929 – Bernard Haitink, Dutch violinist and conductor (one of my favorites)

1932 – Sigurd Jansen, Norwegian pianist, composer, and conductor

1934 – Mario Davidovsky, Argentinian-American composer

1936 – Aribert Reimann, German pianist and composer

1943 – Zoltán Jeney, Hungarian pianist and composer

1947 – Pēteris Plakidis, Latvian pianist and composer

Deaths:

1925 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish-German pianist and composer

1999 – Miłosz Magin, Polish pianist and composer

2008 – Leonard Rosenman, American composer and conductor

March 5:

1868 – Mefistofele, an opera by Arrigo Boito receives its première performance at La Scala.

Births:

1748 – William Shield, English violinist and composer

1751 – Jan Křtitel Kuchař, Czech organist, composer, and educator (quite a name there)

1887 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer

1914 – Philip Farkas, American horn player

1931 – Barry Tuckwell, Australian horn player

1948 – Richard Hickox, English conductor

1954 – Jack Stamp, American conductor and composer (played some of this guy’s pieces before).

1991 – Daniil Trifonov, Russian pianist (this kid is sickeningly talented, or sickeningly young, or maybe they exacerbate one another. Amazing).

Deaths:

1778 – Thomas Arne, English composer

1947 – Alfredo Casella, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor

1953 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (this guy is important; he also apparently died the same day as Stalin, like within hours of each other.)

1984 – Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer

And that’s it for this day. Moving on to 3/6

March 6:

No musical events. Births:

1785 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer and conductor

1914 – Kirill Kondrashin, Russian conductor

And that’s about it. On to deaths:

1860 – Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer

1932 – John Philip Sousa, American conductor and composer

1967 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer

Well, not a lot happened today, did it? Sousa is important, and I’ve heard of Kondrashin, but I forget in the conducting/recording of what rare piece I couldn’t find anywhere else. Oh, and that guy who wrote like, every march that an American could hum if requested to do so. Would more than likely be Sousa.

March 7:

Nothing to see here. Births:

1663 – Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer

1875 – Maurice Ravel, French composer (What a guy. Featured him recently already, and if I weren’t trying to branch out and keep things a bit fresher, I’d feature one of his pieces. I still may…. I still may)

1900 – Evald Aav, Estonian composer

Also, my piano teacher, apparently.

Deaths:

1981 – Kirill Kondrashin, Russian conductor (This guy was born earlier in the week. Just the previous day, in fact. He lived to be a day over 67 years old).

1983 – Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor and composer

March 8:

Births:

1566 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer

1714 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer  (know this guy)

1904 – Nikos Skalkottas, Greek classical composer  (I’m glad they listed him this way so I didn’t have to go look him up and decide whether he merited inclusion.)

1911 – Alan Hovhaness, Armenian-American composer (Prolific composer, with 78 published symphonies).

Deaths:

1869 – Hector Berlioz, French composer

1957 – Othmar Schoeck, Swiss composer and conductor

1961 – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (Important conductor with lots of famous quotes)

1983 – William Walton, English composer

Seriously, not a lot going on this week.

March 9:

Yay! Events!:

1842 – Giuseppe Verdi‘s third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy’s foremost opera writers.

Okay, well maybe just one. Births:

1839 – Phoebe Knapp, American organist and composer

1910 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (Featured here more than once, also important. Want to get around to some of his solo works).

Deaths:

1999 – Harry Somers, Canadian composer

2000 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (not a great day for Canadian music, eh?)

2013 – Tengiz Amirejibi, Georgian pianist (best known for his interpretations of Chopin)